Discussions were pretty varied and informal with all of us grouping up on tables pretty much on an ad-hoc basis.

The old chestnut regarding meeting venues raised its head again as well suggestions about sorting out an organised â€œoutingâ€ possibly to CH. Regards other venues Iâ€™m still trying to find us somewhere in or near South East London and perhaps either Sevenoaks or even Tonbridge might offer those in the east of the county and the London area, reasonable public transport access to a meeting venue.

One of our attendees, Ian Pinder (LaB+MidA+ThB+GrW 96-03) took the opportunity to address the meeting on a subject very close to his heart and that is the rebuilding of a school in Kenya. He is so determined and focussed on this goal that he has given up his job as a Civil Engineer with Balfour Beatty and has made the commitment to enter the cycle race Tour Dâ€™Afique (Cairo â€“ Cape town) in an attempt to garner sponsorship for funding his project. His level of commitment was clearly shown by the fact that it has already cost him Â£9000 of his own money to enter this race. Ian gave a very eloquent and inspiring verbal presentation on this project and this engendered considerable interaction from everyone present. I must admit when he first asked me if he could make a presentation to the meeting on this subject I felt that he may well have found it a bit like â€œswimming uphill in treacle.â€ Nothing could be further from the truth. He inspired a very positive and supportive stance from all attendees and as a result it was suggested we hold an extra ordinary meeting in early January to see him off. Details to follow. So please be there in large numbers and give this young OB the support he deserves. There is a web site describing the race at www.tda2012.com in addition here is the link for giving / donations:

Should anyone require further information please contact Ian through me, the CHA. Or his website.

I made an announcement at the meeting regarding having a guest speaker at one of our future meetings hopefully around March / April 2012.

He is not an Old Blue, however he did know and work with one, the famous scientist Sir Barnes Wallis.

The gentleman concerned is a former Battle of Britain pilot and is also one of the last surviving members of the wartime 617 â€œDambustersâ€ squadron. Whilst he did not take part in the Dams raids he did take part in all three of the later raids that culminated in the sinking of the Tirpitz Battleship.

His name is Squadron Leader Tony Iveson (DFC). He is chairman of the Bomber Command Association. Tony spends a lot of his time giving talks and lectures to raise awareness that there is not yet a national memorial to the 55,000 plus aircrew who lost their lives carrying out the task given them by Winston Churchill â€“ â€œto take the war to the enemyâ€. This they did at horrendous personal cost. Unfortunately, to date, the nation has not yet acknowledged their sacrifice. Tonyâ€™s goal is to see this memorial fully funded and built in the very near future.

At the age of 89, in 2008 he was and still is, the oldest person ever to fly a Lancaster bomber. He took the controls of the â€œCity of Lincolnâ€ Lancaster, part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

He recently published a book â€œLancaster â€“ the biographyâ€

I was only recently introduced to him by his partner, my sister, Mary. Since then we have met on a number of occasions and he has kindly agreed to address one of our meetings. Nearer the time I will publish an up to date itinerary.

Given that we now have two very worthy focal points of interest, I do hope this will be reflected in a significant increase in the numbers of attendees that we will get at our next two meetings.

Until then Iâ€™ll take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year